Bloody Buses.

[MrRegieRitmo]

Anyone know how you save an image on flickr? Can't find an option to save anything

[hammy]

Whilst looking for pictures of nationals, i found this. Whats the story here?

Ha, I think they were trying to drum up sales by doing one-off demos showcasing other potential uses for the bodyshell. I mean, as if anybody would ever want a rear-engined ambulance

Remember this was the protect and survive era and the National would have been able to carry several radiated corpses compared to a CF ambulance. The fact that it would have probably gassed any survivors out like a mobile gas chamber is beside the point.

 

They tried all sorts, there was the suburan express which had a higher floor and coach seats, that prototype was restored but sold to an owner in Australia a few years back. The commuter express which was fitted out like a mobile 1970's office with computers and memory banks like you'd find in The Professionals sits rotting at the back of the Gaydon motor centre. I can't think of any others at the moment but they did also make them into trains (the 141 pacer trains) were based on National 2 parts, they even had the Leyland ergonomic dashboard.

 

I'm surpised they never offered a military version of it in camouflage livery....[/i]

[Volksy]

here's the one at the back of Gaydon..

 

 

and here's a railbus..

 

[pogweasel]

Quality threaddage. I remember having to go on stinking nationals to 'town' when I were a lad, as my mother has never got a grip of this whole 'driving' lark, of course in them days not only were you poisoned by the CO, but also the heavy fag fug that hung in the air - smoking allowed at the back. There is an old National serving out it's days as a greasy spoon caff next to the A421 in Buckingham, not been brave enough to go in yet. As for the National Train, that's spectacularly shit. I would like to hope the driver would use the indicators when crossing points etc....

[Justin Case]

Nationals lasted longer in service than you may think. Chase Buses of Burntwood, near Lichfield, were running a sizeable fleet of them in the Walsall and Cannock areas up until only a couple of years ago; then they got taken over by Arriva Midlands and suddenly there were only Darts on their former services

[brammy777]

Then youve got the Leyland Greenway, which was basically a National which was refreshed by ELC, pretty much everything is new on them, even the engines, the leyland units replaced by Gardner units.

American export version?

Then theres this, which i cheekily print screened off da interwebz

This is just sat in a childs play park. Why cant all parks have this!

Is this the cafe pog?

[Guest]

Spotted randomly parked at the roadside in Balgreen, Edinburgh a couple of years ago...

 

 

There was at least one National built as a mobile bank for the Midland I think, also that ambu-bus contraption was 4x4 according to a book I read once. Wonder what became of them.

[pogweasel]

Yeah, that's the cafe-bus I was thinking of!

[MrRegieRitmo]

I wouldn't be surprised to find out some still live on as airport shuttle buses, airports seem to harbour some surprisingly aged support vehicles, even Gatwick & Heathrow!There was a green mkI National being used as a free shuttle bus for a local nightclub until recently. In fact it may still be the case, just cos I haven't caught sight of it doesn't mean it is no more!About 10 or more years ago, when there were still Nationals in the Stagecoach South Coast fleet, there were also 1 or 2 heavily modified Nationals, still using the same body but with big modifications to the front & rear panels & a boring modern sounding (Volvo?) engine. They were painted in a red & white 'Sussex bus' livery IIRC. Not sure what their purpose was.

[MrRegieRitmo]

It's a shame Malta seems to have escaped having any Nationals considering all the other ex-pat vehicles over there. They certainly wouldn't be worse than many of the buses already over there. They'd be a lot more modern than a lot of them!

Nationals are bastard complex machines in comparison to all the old kit on Malta, and presumably impossible to retrofit with Bedford engines and axles

I thought Nationals were prime regeneration fodder judging by how many over here lived on with heavy engine & body modifications. I'd have thought the Maltese way of improvisation would have sat well with them.

[hammy]

Nationals are very thin on the ground now in service, most of the ones that lasted out long service lives went into preservation (like mine) or to scrap (like mine also did!) Anybody running them is almost a certain target for random VOSA inspections, Chase of Cannock were the last really sizeable operartor of them before they sold out to Arriva.Because of the construction methods, adapting Leyland Nationals was actually pretty hard to do and few of the engine conversions really worked. The Volvo conversion created an over powerful monster which stripped the gearboxes because of the torque, it also required various chunks of chassis member to be cut away to fit it in. Some Mk1's had DAF LC680 engines (based on the Leyland 0.680) which helped a bit but in general the specific and car like construction made them very hard to do DIY repairs and therefore much harder to bodge together. I'd like to find some of the old MIRA footage showing one undergoing crash tests, its one of the few buses to undergo crash testing and did pretty well because of its solid steel construction.

[MrRegieRitmo]

I think the nearest things to Nationals still on the road are Optare Deltas. Visually anyway, spiritually it'll be Leyland Lynxs

[AnthonyG]

I liked travelling on Lothian buses in Edinburgh – the operator is well known for providing a decent fleet kept in good condition, the company is still in public ownership so its lower profit margins mean that the network remains comprehensive and frequent, so partly due to the above reasons usage is high, therefore a reasonable cross-section of society are regular passengers and not just the dregs of humanity mentioned above.:

Some of the above seems to apply in Birmingham, although the fact I travel from a 'upmarket' suburb (Edgbaston) to the very centre of town at prime commuter time seems to cut down the scum factor a lot - they're not up at 7:30 on the morning, and still digesting their £2.49 Wetherspoons lunch at 5pm!No car park at work and frequency of service added to a bus stop 2 mins away from home makes buses a must for me at the moment, although I have been using the car a bit (as I work in a university summer = no students = lots of extra space available for parking).Amusingly, because I had a load of dry cleaning to pick up, I drove into work for Keep Britain Green Day or whatever nonsense was peddled on Friday. I'm sure JC would have approved!

[chester drawers]

The Super National programme hastily scanned from Buses Annual 1988:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reaching for the anorak, the interior shot of The Business Commuter (page 73) offers a tantalizing glimpse of a Philips N1500. Quality videoshite is that. There's one in an episode of The Sweeney I seem to recall too. Must get around to fixing mine...

[Guest]

So this

Is presumably the one with the fancy interior?

[chester drawers]

So this

Is presumably the one with the fancy interior?

The same. Apparently it's now left Gaydon?

[Guest]

The vehicle details for UTJ 595M are: Date of Liability 01 02 1986 Date of First Registration 06 05 1974

Wow - its been off the road for twice as long as it was on it!! Thats gonna have a slim chance of sailing its MOT.

[chester drawers]

Good luck Ian! It’d go down a storm giving rides in the preservation circuit me thinks!

[RedSparrow]

Not usually a fan of buses, but this thread it certainly doing things for me!Cheers!

[pompei]

Not really a bus enthusiast, but some on here might be interested in the Beveley Bar Buses. The bodies were built/modified to allow the buses to pass through the historic gate into Beverley.

 

 

[autohausdolby]

That Chase one looks like it's got GMPTE written all over it. Is that normal?

[hammy]

I'll try and find some pictures of them being built. They opened a dedicated factory in Cumbria to build the National, and they were built on a mobile production like a car because of the modular design, most buses are built in situ on top of the chassis and not moved about as this can distort the bodywork.

 

After National production ended, the factory reverted to a more conventional style of building buses before Volvo killed the factory off and moved Leyland's remaining production to its own plants in Scotland.

 

They also produced a bendi-bus version long before such vehicles became (un)popular in the UK via Leyland's associated Danish arm Leyland DAB.

 

An Electric version was also produced, it towed a trailer of batteries about behind it and of course performed really badly. I don't have any pictures to hand of said bus.

[Guest]

As if by magic - click for bigger pics

 

That Chase one looks like it's got GMPTE written all over it. Is that normal?

 

I think the story went that their initial fleet had all come from Manchester, and seeing as nobody in the Midlands was running buses in those colours it made sense to not bother repainting them

[Split_Pin]

Iain is this an 'Edinburgh style' Atlantean?

 

The upstairs with just seat frames looks.....creepy.

This is indeed an Edinburgh Alexander Atlantean, but the style was originally developed for Glasgow, which was later to be used by other operators, such as Edinburgh, Newcastle and Bournemouth. Can I ask wher this was pictured and how long ago?

 

However, when the new Director of Glasgow Corporation Transport at the time was appointed, having moved from Edinburgh Corporation, he introduced a number of features to the Glasgow body style that were then unique to Edinburgh, such as the long panoamic windows, engine shrouds and interior lighting arrangements.

 

The panoramic windows caused a number of premature withdrawals due the the fact that the low number and arrangement of the body pillars (they didnt line up on the offside) meant that the bodies were weak and cracks and corrosion were found on the offiside lower saloon floor between the axles as a result.

 

Talking of Nationals, heres a great soundtrack of a 510 from WJC buses in Scotland:

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=xg22ujP20qo

[brammy777]

well the atlantean there is on da bay, but its in cupar, in fife, and i assume this picture represents its state now Looks like it had a second life as a lower operators tool, perhaps for the school runs too. Doesnt look in too bad a state, aside from the battle wounds on the bottom. Probably hasnt moved a long distance for ages, but the seller states it can be driven away with trade plates.£750 atm, someones in for a bargain.

[Guest]

How an Edinburgh bus should look:

 

 

Lovely. Note mk2 Fiesta in the background, so bus definitely in its twilight years. These lasted a full service life in Edinburgh by the way - whatever structural problems the big windows might have created, they must have managed to keep on top of them, unlike the Glaswegians.

[brammy777]

look at the steelies on that Uno in the background! so clean.I swear i remember those atlanteans from quite recently, when were they in service til?

[trigger]

I have to say I've started to enjoy looking at old buses in my old(er) age, I find Flickr has a great collection of old bus photos that people have uploaded, Most of them are excellent period photos., GR8 4 SPOTTIN TAT.

 

This is my old school bus we had for years.

 

 

Here's a few others i like as well!.

 

 

 

 

This person here has a great collection of old buses and other tat, Are you on here?, (Should be!)

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8050359@N07/

[hammy]

 

That looks like a Graham's Bus in the centre of Paisley, I suspect the Avenger probably belonged to somebody who worked at Linwood

[hammy]

How an Edinburgh bus should look:

 

 

Lovely. Note mk2 Fiesta in the background, so bus definitely in its twilight years. These lasted a full service life in Edinburgh by the way - whatever structural problems the big windows might have created, they must have managed to keep on top of them, unlike the Glaswegians.

Agreed, we have an M reg ex Edinburgh example in Oxford which had the roof hacked off it 15 years ago, the body is still solid even after all this time unlike some more modern buses I could think of.